Summary Of A Swedish Immigrant: Gustof Unonius

This story is about a Swedish Immigrant named Gustof Unonius, and how he describes his experiences of being in America and trying to make an honest living. The passage starts off with Gustof talking about the fertile land that he resides over and work in. From the looks of things, he seems to be a farmer of some sort. Furthermore, he then begins to point out the amount of energy that he has to put into his work and how much he had to sacrifice in Europe just to come here and work even harder. Fortunately, he does not regret coming to America, because he sees it as a long term investment. From my point of view, he believes that the harder you work now, the less you have to struggle later on in life. In addition, he actually favors a republican
type of government and embraces how America’s emphasis on social equality. No one looks down on each other because of the type of work a person may do. From my point of view, I believe the author may have experience some social inequality back in Europe and that may have been one of the motivations for coming to America. He then begins to address the type of era that they were currently living in, which was the industrial time period. Furthermore, he describes how merchants act so patriotic in America and how many institutions like university’s and homes for the poor depend on merchants for income. Additionally, public structures like canals and railroads are supported by companies and corporations. He also points out how the companies can get very greedy at times and Americans tend to boast too much about their accomplishments. From my point of view, the author is trying to describe how annoyed he is from America’s bad habit of expressing its accomplishments, and should stay humble because times and situations can always change.